The Sustainable Seafood Coalition (SSC), which includes major seafood suppliers, brands and supermarkets, has published two codes of conduct designed to give consumers clarity on sustainable labelling and sourcing.
One code is designed to clarify what environmental claims on fish and seafood mean and the other will help ensure coalition members source products responsibly.
Coalition member Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, of River Cottage and Hugh’s Fish Fight fame, said: “I know that huge numbers of consumers want to buy genuinely sustainable seafood, but identifying it can sometimes be a challenge due to lack of clear information. These codes make it that much easier for shoppers to find responsibly sourced fish.”
By signing the labelling code, businesses commit to all voluntary environmental claims like ‘sustainably sourced’ and ‘responsibly sourced’ made on their own-brand seafood being consistent, clear and accurate.
When agreeing to the sourcing code, members commit to having good traceability, being transparent about their sourcing policies, and carrying out annual risk assessments on fisheries and also audits for aquaculture sources.
SSC members signing up to the labelling code include: Co-operative Food, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Lyons Seafoods, New England Seafood Limited, The Saucy Fish Co. / Icelandic Group UK Ltd, Young’s Seafood Limited, Direct Seafoods and M&J Seafood.
They have all committed to new packaging to be printed from 18 September 2015 in line with the code.
Members signing up to the sourcing code are: Co-operative Food, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Feng Sushi, Harbour Lights Falmouth, River Cottage, Lyons Seafoods, New England Seafood Limited, The Saucy Fish Co. / Icelandic Group UK Ltd, Young’s Seafood Limited, Direct Seafoods, Le Lien Ltd and M&J Seafood.
They have committed to implementing the sourcing code within one year, by which point they will have engagement plans in place to improve any medium or high risk fisheries or farms.
In 18 months SSC secretariat ClientEarth will publish a further review of members’ activities to publicly report on implementation of the codes.
